Leaving yahoo for different email provider?....

[jimsmith]

I've had a yahoo email acct for years, but I want to dump yahoo for a different email service.

So I'd like to ask anyone who's moved from one email provider to another: How did you do this? Did you somehow save/download all your messages in all folders to a single file, then upload everything to new account? Is there a way to "image" the entire thing, ie all folders and all messages?

And what alternative email providers would you recommend? I want to keep my cellphone number private--do all email providers require a cellphone number to open a new acct?

Any tips or info appreciated!

[bacchi]

1) Get a program like Mac Mail or Thunderbird or Outlook and use Imap to pull your mail to your computer. Go "offline" in the program or change the settings (the imap server name, for example) and make sure that you can still read your downloaded mail.

2) Get a new email account.

3) Set up your yahoo email to forward to your new email account. This will make sure you get email sent to your old account as you transition.


The email program can also pull from your new account if you want. There's a setting to leave mail on the server -- I always choose this so that I can read it on the browser as well with my mail program. On my phone, I use k-9 to aggregate various accounts.

[nemesis]

Oh my f*** God... how have you lived with Yahoo for so long?

I started with Hotmail in the 90s, it has evolved with Microsoft but didn't keep up for a while.  I also had a Yahoo email account that I only used for trash and spam.

Gmail was the very first email service that I switched to that is the best in class. Google was the first one to offer end to end SSL encryption for email sessions, not just during log-on, during the early 2000's.  Then Google offered 2 factor authentication with the Google Authentication (game changing) as well and I jumped on that and my email / google accounts are super secure / never compromised.

As a result of Gmail innovations, Hotmail / Outlook + yahoo (much later) implemented full SSL encryption for email sessions, and finally only recently offered 2 factor authentication.

My Yahoo accounts were hacked even though I rarely used them, and only for spam...now we know why - ALL yahoo accounts were hacked. Thank God I never used it for anything important.

So my one advice is... run, don't walk, to Gmail and make the switch.  It's thanks to Gmail that we have decent security in emails today.

My Hotmail / Outlook email accounts work ok, but the spam filters are God damn awful.  I can't block obvious spam, even repetitive spammers / scammers... it pisses me off.

Gmail has the world's best spam blockers.  I have my elderly folks on Gmail, and I never have to worry about them falling prey to spam / scams because Google blocks 99.99% of that crap. 

On the other hand, I get endless spam / scam emails on my Outlook accounts and it boils my blood that Microsoft has not addressed this, despite years of please from the Hotmail / Outlook users.

If you care about security and peace of mind at all...Google is the only option, imho.

[soccerluvof4]

Whats Yahoo? That company still exists? Yea go to Google

[frugalnacho]

On a related note...should I ditch my horse and buggy and get a car?

Yahoo was unusable garbage 10 years ago, and they haven't improved since.  I still have a yahoo account because I've had it for 20 years, but I don't use it for anything.  It's still associated with some really old log ins though.

As for transitioning...it's nearly impossible.  You should just abandon it and start using a new address.  You can keep it around and check it in case old contacts want to email you, or you have old log ins associated with it, but just start using gmail for everything new going forward.

[HipGnosis]

+X for GMail
But, I've also still got Yahoo.  It's nice having all my account & subscription & notification & BS Emails going somewhere seperate.
Yes, I do use filters on GMail, but I still like them seperate.
Oh, I also use GMail alias addresses - but found out that they aren't accepted everywhere.

[Johnez]

What are "Gmail alias addresses"?

[BicycleB]

I support just closing or abandoning the yahoo account, and going to gmail.

I did something like that once. Just started fresh and told the people I cared about what my new email address was. Changed business accounts' record of my email manually. You can review your payment records to make sure you don't miss any payees.

[CatamaranSailor]

Proton Mail, hands down. Great interface, based in Switzerland (no datamining) fully encrypted. The base option is free.

[HipGnosis]

What are "Gmail alias addresses"?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Gmail+alias+addresses

[GuitarStv]

I moved from yahoo to gmail seven or eight years back when they had a service interruption that prevented me from accessing my email for two weeks.

What I did was:
- create a gmail account
- Email all the saved/backed up stuff from the yahoo account to the gmail account
- forward all new mail from the yahoo account to my gmail account

That's it.

[SoftwareGoddess]

Oh, I also use GMail alias addresses - but found out that they aren't accepted everywhere.

Yahoo has a similar thing, called "disposable email addresses". I've never had a problem with them being accepted.

[HipGnosis]

Oh, I also use GMail alias addresses - but found out that they aren't accepted everywhere.

Yahoo has a similar thing, called "disposable email addresses". I've never had a problem with them being accepted.

Thanks!  I didn't know about them.

[Travis]

Yahoo was my first email account. I still have it, but as something of a burner account.  If I'm signing up for something I'm only going to need once or it'll probably subject me a shit ton of spam - Yahoo.  Shortly after that I got a Hotmail account and it's still my primary.  I got GMail only because my phone service required it and now all my Google-related functions are tied to it, but I still don't use it as an actual email account.

I can't remember how long ago it was (10 years?) ago that the CEO of Yahoo was horrified to find out most of Yahoo's employees didn't even have a Yahoo email account.  This was around the time that Google was absolutely crushing them as a search engine and starting to get into more applications. 

Short documentary about Yahoo for your viewing pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DpspOXs1rM